David Gilmour‘s guitar has become the most expensive ever after selling for a staggering £10.9m ($14.5m).
He used the Black Stratocaster guitar to record Pink Floyd albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979).
It was tipped to make £2.9m but sparked an international bidding war to achieve nearly four times the estimate.
That guitar made £4.5m ($6m).
Gilmour’s guitar, which he owned from 1970 to 1983, was the top performer in the ‘ultimate collection of music memorabilia’ auctioned last night (Thurs) at Christie’s New York.
Cobain’s blue and white 1966 Fender Mustang guitar, which he used while recording the album Nevermind and in the music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991), achieved £5.2m.
Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit used during the rise of Beatlemania between May 1963 and February 1964, which has the famous Beatles logo on it, went for £1.8m.
David Gilmour’s guitar has become the most expensive ever after selling for almost four times its estimated price at auction
He used the Black Stratocaster guitar to record Pink Floyd albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979
Bandmate John Lennon’s Broadwood piano fetched £2.4m, while George Harrison’s Gibson SG Standard guitar made £1.7m and Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Hey Jude’ achieved £760,000.
Harrison played the electric guitar on tour during the height of Beatlemania and Lennon used the piano to write ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.’
The relics were amassed over decades by the late American billionaire Jim Irsay, who owned the American Football team the Indianapolis Colts.
The first tranche of 44 ‘hall of fame’ lots sold for more than £60m ($80m) and there are hundreds more items to be consigned in future sales.
A Christie’s New York spokesperson said: ‘Through the annals of rock history, David Gilmour’s black Fender Stratocaster stands out as one of only a handful of guitars that have taken on a life of their own and gained a level of fame to near match their owner.
‘Despite humble beginnings as an off-the-shelf standard model Stratocaster, the extensively modified guitar has become a legend in its own right.
‘Of all the instruments in Gilmour’s considerable collection, it is the black Stratocaster that has served him the longest as both a performance and recording tool, appearing on every Pink Floyd album from 1970 to 1983 and all four of Gilmour’s solo albums to date, becoming synonymous with his image and tone.
‘A mainstay at the zenith of Pink Floyd, the guitar was integral to the recording of the band’s seminal masterpiece The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973), as well as follow-up albums Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979), forming the four cornerstones of the classic-era Pink Floyd.
‘Heard by billions of people across the globe over the last forty-nine years, the music Gilmour created on this trusty Strat will undoubtedly live on for hundreds more.’
Julien Pradels, President of Christie’s America, said of the collection: ‘Jim Irsay was an incredible collector with an eye for rare treasures tied to the most important moments in our collective history.’
Irsay died aged 65 last May.
